Report: Seahawks expected to release DT Malik McDowell

The Seahawks selected DT Malik McDowell with their first pick last year. (AP)

The Seahawks could soon be parting ways with former second-round pick Malik McDowell, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

McDowell has yet to play a down for the Seahawks ever since he suffered a serious concussion in an ATV incident after the 2017 NFL Draft. Questions surrounding McDowell’s status have lingered ever since; but on Monday there appeared to be an answer – at least as far as his career with Seattle in concerned. Rapoport reported that the Seahawks have not yet cleared McDowell to begin working out and are expected to release him “in the near future.”

The #Seahawks have not yet cleared 2017 2nd round pick DT Malik McDowell, and source said they are expected to release him in the near future. The hope is that another team will medically clear him.

The Seahawks drafted McDowell, 21, out of Michigan State with their first pick of the 2017 NFL Draft (No. 35-overall). News of McDowell’s injury first came in July 2017, when the team announced the rookie defensive tackle had been involved in a vehicular accident.

“It will be the end of what has been, not just a disappointing, but really a pretty heartbreaking trajectory for the team’s second-round draft pick a year ago,” 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny O’Neil said. “As far as the resolution, this isn’t really that much of a surprise. Anybody that’s been around or following this story has kind of taken the approach for the past six or seven months, which is, ‘Hey, until you hear something about him practicing… don’t go ahead assuming that he is going to ever play for this team again.'”